KEY POINTS:
I just gulped down magazine queen Wendyl Nissen's delicious memoir, Bitch and Famous, in a single sitting. It surprised me.
It had been billed as the inside story of sleb culture, and it had a bit of gratuitous glossy stuff, but what I found more revealing was how
honest Nissen was about what motivated her.
After losing her baby daughter, Ginny, to cot death, she channelled her raw grief into becoming "Angry Wendyl" and cultivating a Gina Hardface Bitch persona. These days, Wendyl is much more Zen and no longer feels the need to be a tough dame. It's a shame.
Bitch and Famous is yet more depressing proof that women do their best work in the competitive arena when we are unhappy or cross - a mean witch. When we are jolly and contented, we have too much cow-like oxytocin glugging through our veins and no desire to conquer the world. Goodbye Katharine Hepburn, hullo Doris Day. (Oxytocin is the lovey-dovey hormone released during breastfeeding and orgasm which encourages maternal feelings and trust.)
Deborah Coddington is another strong woman who admits she lost the taste for the adversarial bust-ups of politics when she found happiness and contentment.
She now lives on a farm, sees the best in people and makes cupcakes.
So that's the choice, gals. You can either be happy and boring and grow fresh herbs or you can be a shrew with a six-figure income, quick wit and good shoes.
This need for bile is especially obvious in journalism or politics, where you have to beat someone up every week. As Alice Roosevelt Longworth said (often wrongly attributed to Dorothy Parker): "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come and sit down next to me."
But businesspeople also achieve more when they are bitter and twisted.
I remember former Brierley boss Josh Easby telling me you should never hate your enemies as it clouds your judgment.
He was probably right but a sense of anger is invigorating in business.
Many successful businesspeople channel the angst or rejection they felt as a child or teenager into their work; it's the "nyah, nyah, nyah" syndrome.
But men seem to be able to keep their fury burning for longer than women - they don't have the same hormonal brew.
* * *
Last week I asked whether there was a dark side to The Warehouse.
Yes, says one correspondent, a former Red Shed employee who asked to remain anonymous. He points out that founder Stephen Tindall preaches that "the best thing you can spend on your children is time", yet Tindall himself was the key driver behind employees' seven-day retail week.
It is also almost impossible for any Warehouse staffer to get an employment contract for a nine-to-five, Monday to Friday position.
He predicts The Warehouse will fight tooth and nail to keep selling fireworks for Guy Fawkes, as the margins on them are so lucrative.
And, says my correspondent, The Warehouse does have an aggressive buying culture - many suppliers had little choice but to take a 10 per cent cut in margins across the board.
As to Tindall's professed commitment to sustainability, my source says, how much landfill fodder does The Warehouse contribute?
Meanwhile, after losing The Warehouse case, the chastened Commerce Commission here must be interested to see British supermarket giants Tesco and Morrisons have admitted secretly getting together to fix the price of dairy products.
Not that it could happen here, of course.
